Lion king of Lugunica (Crusch analysis!)
Crusch Karsten is one of the five dragon candidates for the throne of the king but first Crusch starts off as a young heir to the Karsten household, a Duke household. The Karsten house being a loyal family to royalty which bore the lion insignia, which was handed down from the Lugunican royalty from when they had made the covenant with the Divine Dragon Volcanica.
From a young age, Crusch always has been enamoured with the idea of living earnestly and truthfully. The ideology Crusch has is: “A way of living that brings no shame to your soul,” which is to say live in a way that brings no shame to yourself. While there is nothing wrong with that ideology in itself, Crusch is the daughter of a Duke, thus she has expectations placed on herself from all around her. Crusch wants to live earnestly, but the people’s demands do not align with how she wants to live.
“It’s mysterious. While on one hand I am rebuked for being a woman who wields a sword, on the other I am strictly told to master things as a man would, in order to succeed the duke. The people around me; do they want me to be a man or a woman?”
Crusch cannot shrug off the demands, but she also does want to pursue what she wishes to do. The expectations placed on her as a Duke are things that a man would do, while she has also been criticised for her womanly behaviour because she is a girl. Thus, for the first time, Crusch chose to align herself with the demands of others and live how people expected—a way that is not in line with her ideology. The one who broke her out of this stupor was none other than Fourier.
“Forget what I said, my lord. Think of it as the foolish mumblings of a girl who knows not her place. I have no brothers, but it remains that I am a woman. I am unable to choose a life befitting my house’s crest…the path of a lion.” She spoke the words unable to choose in a tone of profound resignation. There was something she desperately wanted to do and couldn’t.
The lion kings were proud people who were wise and chose the direction they wanted to go in. To Crusch, they were everything she could not be. Currently the kingdom is in a pact and remaining stagnant due to the Divine Dragon but to her these ambitious lion king had an ambition and chose the path they walked. Even as a child she said this:
“ In the time of the Lion King, we did not have the stability we enjoy now. But they did not have this stagnation, either. The dragon’s blessing makes our lives easy—perhaps too easy.”
Thus, even before meeting Fourier, she was enamoured with the idea of a being choosing to live in a way that is not shameful, which is what a lion king does—facing the future with courage. Yet despite bearing the crest, she could not do such a thing herself, is what she believed until—
“Don’t give me that resigned smile! Perhaps your words are foolishness, but they belong to you. I will not laugh, and anyone who laughs does not have the vision to see where you are headed. You never know what might come of it—what flower might bloom. You are still just a bud! And who can say what wonderful blossom might emerge before it has fully come into itself?”
Crusch heard these words speak to her. To say this was a turning point in Crusch's life would be an understatement. She, who had given up and resigned herself to living in a way that is shameful, was struck by Fourier’s words to not give up on herself. It was during this moment that Crusch came to change her disposition from resigning herself to how others saw her. Thus, the change in how she presented herself too:
“In time, His Highness began to call at our mansion. I never told you, did I? Until I met His Highness, I always tied my hair back. Now I merely use a ribbon to keep it neat.” “I never knew. Why did you stop tying it up?” “His Highness told me to be faithful to myself. So that was what I did. I chose the ribbon I gave to you, but…it began with His Highness.”
Ferris unconsciously touched the white ribbon Crusch had given him, which he still wore in his hair.
Thus after this incident Crusch chose to pursue what she wanted to do. Things that she wanted to do such as swordsmanship even if people began to see her as:
“Duke Carsten’s daughter was a sword-crazed wild woman, was their opinion of her that he had heard. Those who knew nothing of her disposition touched on the topic however they pleased, without knowing the truth.”
But even so she decided to stick with what she was yearning for. She would choose to pursue her swordsmanship, be a duke that others could admire and strive to live faithfully to herself all at once. Crusch takes being a duke just as important as her own wishes as she’s a fair and just woman to people who she owes a responsibility to. She even feels responsible for a young Felix, her knight,. And the injustices he had been served because it happened in her jurisdiction and her responsibility towards her people.
“The Argyle household is under my household’s jurisdiction. Seeing a problem, and taking action, are only natural.”
“Juris…diction…”
And she seeks fit to right this amends and bring happiness to Ferris as well as make sure he hears the words he needs to hear.
“Because of a blessing I’ve had since birth, I can see through the lies of others. Your mother was not unfaithful. I confirmed it myself. After that, I climbed up the Argyle family tree and found the cause. Your ears are a throwback, a recessive trait from a distant relative four generations back.”
Felix was holding his breath. She smiled at him, and continued.
“It was all begun by a misunderstanding. …It is no sin for you to be alive.”
“……”
“Raise your head, look forward, and live with unclouded eyes. It might be difficult to do it right away, but I will help you as well. So for now, please believe in me.”
During this same side story the extent of Crusch's kindness and sense of responsibility she feels towards people are seen yet once again during Felix’s confrontation with her mother. Felix after a long and constant abuse towards his family attempts to kill his mother with a knife, Crusch who knows the injustice and anger Ferris feels towards his family stops him —in the form of impeding the knife attack and ending up being stabbed. That is because she does not want to see Ferris live in a way that brings him shame and leads to his dark fulfillment.
“…Fool.” The girl’s eyes were closed, and she gave a brief answer to Felix as he trembled. She feebly forced open her long-lashed eyes and looked at his wretched face. “Open your…eyes. Raise your head, and look forward. To live with unclouded eyes… does not mean to fulfill the darkness you have inside.” “But, but I… then what should I have done? It’s cruel, isn’t it? It’s unfair, isn’t it? After being treated like that…… how can I forgive everyone……?” “There’s no need… to forgive……don’t misunderstand. Your feelings are legitimate. It’s only natural. It’s simply that you tried to go about it the wrong way……” “Wrong way…. What’s… the right way?” “A way of living, that brings no shame to your soul.”
Her weak voice became clear for just a moment as she passed on that conviction. Strength returned to her eyes, she raised her head, and she looked straight at Felix as she spoke. “Never forget, Felix… Live in a way that brings no shame to your soul.”
At this point, Crusch had no knowledge of Felix’s potential as Blue, so while some may view her action as reckless, this moment is vital to both of them. If she hadn’t stopped Ferris, she would have deeply regretted it. And if Ferris had gone through with the act, he would have set himself on a path of self-destruction.
Some might argue that Crusch’s words were idealistic. But Ferris’s own father, Biehn, had once stabbed his wife in a similar act of rage—the exact thing Ferris nearly repeated.
“My mother was stabbed—repeatedly. Over and over, so many times. This… Even I feel bad for her.” His heart hurt. Although Ferris felt nothing for her as his mother, no one deserved to die in such a cruel way. But another thought accompanied this one: such a homicidal rage was unlikely to be the work of a passerby, a stranger. If there was anyone in the past several years who had hated his mother enough to kill her, it was…
This outcome proves the legitimacy of Crusch’s conviction: living in a way that brings no shame to your soul means resisting the darkness, even if you are right to feel hurt. She doesn’t deny the injustice—but shows a better path forward. After being saved by Felix he had chosen to stay by her side to try live in a way that was honest to his soul which was to use it to help people who saved him (Crusch) and use his talents to help people, the value Crusch and later on Fourier had imparted on him.
It is once again after that Crusch undergoes another catalyst in forming the person she becomes through Felix and his training to become a knight through the use of the sword. Something he is not fit for with his weak and feeble body but instead she believes everyone can find a way that is for them and their soul. Something she chooses to show Ferris through making him using his healing magic:
As Crusch winced at the slight pain, Felix ran to her side and took her hand. If one looked closely, a bead of blood had formed at the tip of a white finger, and was running down her finger toward the palm of her hand.
Hastily focusing his awareness, Felix awoke the mana within himself. Placing that faint sensation on his own fingertip, faint blue-white light flowed out to envelop Crusch’s injury.
Which showed him:
“I won’t give up on becoming a knight. But, I’m sure I’ll turn out a bit different from the usual sort of knight. Will you forgive me for taking you at your word?”
“If it casts no shadow on your soul, then I’m happy with it.”
With those brief, Crusch-style words of encouragement, Felix was at last able to give a relaxed smile.
Seeing Felix’s smile
Crusch words had dearly affected his heart.
This shows how Crusch tries to live but even so choosing to liie faithfully does not mean at times she becomes troubled between gender expectations, societal expectations etc. Crusch is a young child and is still conflicted at the heart.
She feels that her actions are always criticised even though she is trying to live in a way befit for herself
“I love your smile, Crusch-sama. It makes me feel from the bottom of my heart that I want to follow you.”
“My father often calls it ‘A face that’s not cute at all’, though.”
She tried to pass the words off as a joke, but a flicker of pain was visible in her amber eyes.
And feels as if
“If I was going to be born without any girlish charm, it would have been better to be born a boy. No doubt my father thinks of me that way.”
“That can’t be…!”
“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t wound my heart. I think it’s exactly right as well. Surely you are not unaware of how the gossips speak of me?”
People wanted her to be born a different sex itself. Though Crusch says it does not wound her heart, Crusch is not very good at expressing herself, something she shares with her father—
Like daughter like father, we cannot look at ourselves properly, Meckart thought, his shoulders shaking from laughing uncontrollably.
Crusch does not dislike the feminine aspects of herself but if the feminine aspects of herself are what get in her path to pursue matters such as being a duke then she makes an extreme decision of getting rid of it through a promise she made with Ferris. What she cannot be was be given to Ferris despite her not disliking her feminine aspects she sees it easier to act most befit in a manner where she is a boy given to her by Ferris.
“I… I’ll take care of being a girl, so I’ll give my boyhood to you! Please; I know it might not be much, but please accept it!”
Thus the ribbon Crusch used to wear and tied her hair up with to be more like a girl is now given to Ferris
“It certainly wouldn’t do to not accept something offered by my retainer. As a result……”
While saying that, Crusch undid the ribbon holding her hair, and gently pulled it free.
Escaping the constraints of the white ribbon, her beautiful green hair spread rapidly in the breeze. Unconcerned with that, Crusch took the undone ribbon and placed it in Felix’s flaxen hair as he stood stiffly.
Like a large flower in bloom
Crusch giving the flower to Ferris is symbolic as this is the vow where she would never dress up as a woman to begin. From here on out she merely dresses in military outfits or boyish clothes and this is reinforced by her taking the vow seriously.
“...Father, I have told you many times. I shall no longer wear dresses, only formal men’s attire. I don’t want to be the kind of master that breaks her promise with her retainer.”
However Crusch is once again challenged on her state during her 17th birthday. This birthday barring particular significance for Crusch as she would be becoming a noble and the Duke of her area. The thing she had worked so hard for. To Crusch she had always seen being a Duke as a masculine role and the people around her such as her father wanting to be masculine but she misunderstands that she can act and be a woman and be in a position of power at the same time.
“Crusch! Love flowers! Appreciate poetry! Put on makeup, wear dresses and jewelry, and let me see that innocent smile! You don’t have to repress yourself anymore! I permit it! Here, today, I will make right my foolishness and allow you to be a true woman!”
Fourier who has been beside Crusch for 7 years and a lion king can see that Crusch is repressing herself. The one bearing most important isn’t the dress here but the loving of flowers. Crusch after taking Ferris boyishness did not ever go to the garden once or enjoy flowers as she made that vow. The flower garden being something that a young Crusch had loved to watch and enjoy her whole life which is why it is the first thing Fourier mentions.
Furthermore Crusch realises she has been misunderstanding that she can be a Duke, pursue swordsmanship and do both boyish and girlish things while being a girl is important. Yes the people outside of her camp may judge her but the people closest to her heart are cheering for her saying it’s okay to be a woman too.
“Your Highness!”
“Prince Fourier!”
“Your Highness, help our lady!”
These were cries from the servants, many of them red-eyed and with a tremble in their voices. They had known Crusch since she was young, and they wanted to encourage the prince in his resolve. Fourier pressed his attack, and Crusch looked more shaken still.
And even her father who she thought wanted her to be a man was someone she was wrong about.
“Crusch is my only child. She has turned out so well as to be wasted on me. I haven’t been a reliable father by any stretch. But the more pathetic I am, the more admirable she becomes… I do want her to follow her own dreams. I pray she grows up to be exactly who she truly is.” Meckart lowered his eyes, affection for his daughter overcoming him. “But I am a duke as well as a father. And she is the daughter of a duke as well as my child. So long as she lives in this house, supported by the people of this domain, she will have certain duties she must perform. And when she is performing them, people will expect dress and decorum befitting her position. Well, Felix? Am I wrong?”
That is why during this fight while it might be mistakenly seen as Fourier forcing Crusch to be feminine or being a “woman” in a typical sexist way the scene is not that at all. Crusch is the superior swordsman and combatant in everywhere but the result of the battle was
The next moment, there was a crack as the wooden sword finally gave way, and part of the broken blade skittered across the ground. The one blade that remained more or less intact was pointed at the chest of the loser.
Crusch lost, but the loss of this fight was a liberation from Crusch's self-imposed view of herself and her embracing her womanhood. She lost to the people in her life wanting her to be true to herself and not discard aspects of herself to try to live responsibly and in a way that does not bring shame to the soul. Thus, on her seventeenth birthday, she would wear women's clothes for the first time since childhood.
However, an incident happens where the Great Rabbit attacks the Karsten land, and the people around her try to keep her away. They want Crusch to enjoy this party because it is a vital birthday for Crusch and her mark into nobility. However, when Crusch herself finds out, she tries to make haste to the scene and abandon the birthday party, which would be similar to her discarding a part of herself for another yet once again. But it is Fourier who reminds her:
“You wish to support your father, and you must go through with this birthday celebration. Both duties are equally demanded of Crusch Karsten, the duke’s daughter. And she must not fail in either but see them both through, just like the you that I know.”
Both things are important for Crusch as a duke: to make an impression and to support the land and people. But she does not know how to because she is used to trying to do things alone. It is Fourier who reminds her:
“Of course it would be ideal to do both,” Crusch said. “But realistically…with my strength, I couldn’t…” “Wrong again. You have me. You have Ferris. You aren’t alone.” “Your Highness…”
She can do both, but the simplest way is to be supported by Ferris and Fourier, who have always stood by her side. An important theme in Re:Zero is once again reiterated — about not being alone, and how strength can be found in those around you. It is during this scene where Ferris is knighted. It is not only an important moment for Ferris, but for Crusch, because she is always reminded she is never alone. Fourier is also the one who granted her a gift:
“You said my consideration is gift enough for you—but it isn’t for me. Therefore, I have prepared a gift for you as well. I think it will suit you better than anything else.”
It was a long, thin, but remarkably heavy package. Crusch’s eyes went wide as she unwrapped it. She held a sword in her hands—one that was obviously masterwork quality.
“This is the best of all the blades in the royal armory. I asked Bordeaux to verify as much, so I’m sure it’s true. It is my gift to you.”
“Your Highness…I thought you were against my wielding the sword.”
During her birthday she gets a sword bearing the lion crest which bares a parallel to the first scene between Fourier and Crusch where she has a dagger bearing the crest of a lion. Back then she was seen as a girl and it was odd for hee to have a sword, now people have accepted that a sword is natural to her and that she can wear a dress as well. The people around her will love the Crusch she is no matter what and I think it’s also a message to be around people who support you in every way. This is in line with what Fourier says:
“What else could I do? All my life I have seen you with the sword in your hand. That is the you that I like best. I’m sure you’ll be stunning in your dress…but in my mind, you will always be the girl who grips the sword.” Fourier had begun to flush red from speaking his mind so directly. “If you won’t give up the blade, then I hope I can at least choose the one you hold. Otherwise, you might never replace that dagger. And I might never get you back from the Lion King.”
The people around her will love her no matter what, and they like the version she is now the most. That’s why it is fitting that, on Crusch’s birthday, she was assigned a noble name like Valkyrie—as well as the title The Valkyrie of Duke Karsten—which refers to brave and beautiful women in Norse mythology. She displayed her combat capability against the Great Rabbit and saved her people, while also making a show at her banquet by revealing a more feminine side of herself. She fulfilled both of her duties while staying true to herself. As the narration puts it, “In her military outfit, she had seemed as sharp as her sword, but in an instant she had come to shine as bright as a gem in her dress.”
These times are ones Crusch would look back on fondly before the tragedy of the Royal Family’s illness. The illness and its history were explained in the main story, but for Crusch, she was deeply attached to Fourier Lugunica—who was not the most notable member of the Lugunican royal family, and thus was often overlooked by others.
It is during Crusch’s final moments with Fourier that they return once again to the flower garden she visited as a child—except this time, the flowers are no longer buds.
But in the bustle and anxiety of the past several months, the colorful flora had found themselves rather lonely. “Well, it’s nice without a crowd. All the better to appreciate the blossoms—you can see them so much more clearly. Don’t you think?” “So you can. Your Highness is always so good at finding the bright side of things.”
The flowers have now fully blossomed—just like Crusch, whom Fourier once described as a "bud" in her youth. The reason she has blossomed is thanks to the people and the support around her, helping her find a way to live that brings no shame to her soul and one that bears pride in the Lion King crest passed down from her household and personally by Fourier. It is there that during Fourier last moments that he tells Crusch:
“One last thing…”
The breeze continued to blow. But with her blurring vision, Crusch didn’t see it, not even with her blessing. There, in the garden, Crusch held Fourier close and whispered.
“I wish I could have seen the future you dreamed of…”
The dream she had as a child being to see
The only regret Crusch has now was the decision of entrusting everything to Ferris and disliking her smile that’s “not cute” at all as she had come to sincerely reget it as seen here:
This had never been a particular talent of hers, but Fourier often wanted to see her smile.
“Mm… I knew…your smile was…beautiful.”
She shouldn’t have left all the good cheer to Ferris. She should have at least learned how to make herself smile. Crusch tried to live life without regrets, but this one thing she dearly wished were different.
This is what the kind prince who brought everyone smiles on his death bed, to Crusch he was a gentle soul that treated those around him with kindness and he’d bring smiles upon everyone's face like the sun in the sky. That’s why for his sake once he had passed away she continued to look towards the future.
There was a chorus of agreement. The sentiment spread, and Crusch found she had no choice but to look up and force herself to smile. To remain there with her head down would be the ultimate betrayal of what Fourier had wanted.
—She pictured his smiling face, remembered how he had always tried to look on the bright side.
She wanted to smile more and she remembered to face the future just as he did. But in return to her facing the future hopefully how did the kingdom respond to that hospe, well they destroyed it utterly when she had heard that meeting.
If they had been worried about negotiating with other countries now that the king was gone, she could have forgiven them. But discussing how to manipulate the dragon—was that really the first thing on their minds?With mounting disgust, it dawned on Crusch: None of these people were really unhappy that the royal line had ended. What they were worried about was the implications of it—whether the dragon would abandon them. They were terrified of being turned out from the cradle of the dragon’s blessings. The death of the king, the end of the royal family—these were secondary considerations.
To them, Fourier’s death is hardly a footnote.
They did not care for the death of the kind royalty, they had turned the people of Lugunican royalty in just tools for the dragon. No one here had any feeling whatsoever or was mourning Fourier, Randolph, Ford or any other nobility for that matter. And it dawns on Crusch that
if Crusch had not been so close to Fourier, she would no doubt be embracing the same fears as the rest of them. Her soul would be just as lukewarm as theirs.
She too could have turned out cold-hearted like this. Thus if she was also not an exception there was an underlying reason for all the nobility losing their empathy and not even discussing the kingdom future but only the pact with their dragon. The kingdom has grown over reliant on the Divine Dragon. And for Crusch:
That way of living, above all others, repulsed Crusch. She could hardly bear it as it cast a dark shadow over her heart.
She fundamentally does not see this living in a shameful manner of the soul. This darkens Crusch heart at seeing the kingdom in such a sorry state and despises the covenant because
“the existence of the dragon undermines that precious time of ours,”
As everyone has grown reliant on it and become cold. The kingdom is in stagnation and the people have grown weak and living in a way that is shameful to the soul. And even forgetting about the royalty which Crusch can’t allow.
“The man who was my Lion King did live. I shall never allow anyone to say he didn’t.”
The pact with the dragon embracing the kingdom had protected the people for a very long time. But it had made their hearts weak, so much so that they were willing to ignore the death of this kind boy who had been loved by everyone he met. People’s hearts had grown so frail that Fourier’s death was all but forgotten in the face of the pact with the dragon.
“His death belongs to him. My Lion King is within me even now. I still dream the dream my king had—I alone can achieve it.”
Crusch wants to have the people raise their gaze up and look around them to see what they had missed, to push forward and make their own decision.. To not have a weak heart and lukewarm soul that makes everyone rely on the covenant. That is why Crusch will change the kingdom and pursue the dream Fourier had. Crusch tells Ferris this dream herself.
“His Highness had a dream—of you, and me, and him, the three of us, building the future together.”
Crusch is not just changing the kingdom with her dreams and ambition in mind but she’s carrying the dream of Fourier which is all 3 of their ambitions. To build the future of the nation and change this kingdom. That’s why she tells Ferris:
“We’re going, Ferris. To reclaim our kingdom from the dragon and make His Highness’s dream come true.”
“Yes, Lady Crusch. Lead me, and I’ll follow. We’ll find where His Highness’s dream takes us.”
This was the birth of two Lion kings here and the continuation of the 3rd lion king dream as the narrative says
No one knew a knighthood had been bestowed there that day—except one, or perhaps two, Lion Kings who were present. And it was a beginning, and for the two of them, it was also the continuation of the dream of their Lion King.
Calling them directly Lion Kings because Lion kings aren’t just bloodline or something tied to the royal family but lion kings are
“Wise and strong, these lords provided guidance to all the people.”
Which is what the two are and what Fourier is to then. That is why when we look at the core part of Crush’s speech in volume 4
“I have already stated that this past prosperity is mostly a good thing. No words have passed my lips claiming that I myself have not been a beneficiary of its blessing. The House of Karsten was born with the kingdom and has shared in its glory. Had a crisis destroyed the kingdom, my house would have shared its fate. Whenever the Dragon has saved the nation, it has saved my house as well.” Crusch paused briefly. “However, the future is a different matter. Do you think nothing of the pathetic sight you make at this moment? Have you not ceased to use your minds because you cling to the Dragon and the Covenant? When war, plague, and famine assail the kingdom anew, is there nothing we can do but sing the Dragon’s praises?”
“This nation has relied upon the writings of the Dragon Tablet for too long, becoming so soft and weak that it cannot stand on its own power. The nation takes for granted that the Dragon and prophecy will aid it whenever it is shaken. But can you argue that we have strived to avoid such matters from occurring to begin with? A number of calamities in recent years, including the failure of the Great Subjugation fourteen years ago, are things we courted through that weakness.”
Everyone held their breath in shock, eyes wide at Crusch’s declaration.
Bathed in gazes of shock and anger, she raised a fist and nobly declared, “If the kingdom is to crumble without the Dragon’s protection, then crumble it should. A nation too blessed stagnates, that stagnation courts corruption, and corruption brings about its demise. That is what I think.”
She is not merely crying out but she saw the first hand scene of what happened when the Royal Family died out and was there to see the over reliance on the dragon. They have ceased to use their “minds” and are not even choosing a way to live for themselves. If you are merely living in accordance with the Divine Dragon at every whim then could you really call that living. The future is tied to the Divine Dragon forever and this kingdom will never cease to stand on its two feats is what people think she’s saying but that is not what Crusch is suggesting is to make this kingdom stronger. “No. If the nation is to crumble without the Dragon, we should become the Dragon ourselves. Everything that the kingdom has relied upon the Dragon for until now should be borne by king, minister, and people. Furthermore…”
The people deciding the choice, them deciding trade. These are all things Crusch wants to see. During the meeting of the royalty death she had thought to herself
The Kingdom of Lugunica had been under the dragon’s blessing, saved from crisis more than once by the creature. Their fear was valid; Crusch was as aware as any of them that they were reliant on the dragon. But was that really the first thing they should be lamenting? If they had wanted to debate the future of the kingdom, that would have been fine. If they had been worried about negotiating with other countries now that the king was gone, she could have forgiven them. But discussing how to manipulate the dragon—was that really the first thing on their minds?
The people should be looking forwards to the future instead of but all they could do is panic and grow weak at the thought of losing a dragon. That is why all the actions of Crusch and her history from meeting with Fourier to everything she had become and trying to live in a way thats not shameful to her soul resuslted in her saying this
“When I become king, I will make us forget about the Covenant with the Dragon until now, come what may. The Dragonfriend Kingdom of Lugunica belongs not to the Dragon, but to us.”
That is how the dragon candidate Crusch Karsten came to be everything we saw in canon.
